


Manderley

by srsly_yes



Category: House M.D.
Genre: Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-08
Updated: 2011-10-08
Packaged: 2017-10-24 19:21:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/266972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/srsly_yes/pseuds/srsly_yes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Before returning to PPTH, House has a recurring dream.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Manderley

**Author's Note:**

> **Warning:** Slightly spoilery. Loosely based on 8x2 previews.  
>  **Disclaimer:** [H]ouse is not mine and never will be.  
> 

Morning bed check.

House rubs the sleep from his eyes, but the image lingers. He's experiencing _Variations on a Theme_ but in dream form. It is his constant companion since he fled to his Elba.

It is always night, and there is always a damaged structure. A mythical, burned out relic, or something familiar like Cuddy’s caved in dining room sporting taillights, or a gaping space between buildings with an apron of rubble where a garage once stood. He aches with loss, almost crushed to dust like the bricks and stones.

He crawls to a ragged-topped pillar, no longer useful. He tests its solidity by gently leaning his shoulder against it. Deeply anchored to the foundation, the stanchion holds.

And the dream ends.

The sad hitchhiker follows him out of prison. Insists on snuggling suffocatingly close before his return to the hospital. House drowns it in his morning coffee. After all, Foreman told him Cuddy was gone.

As he walks past the front desk and down the familiar corridors, memories of his dream emerge and snicker, “Not gone. Not gone. He never left.”

Eyes dull and wearing a stony facade, Wilson offers a cold greeting.

House smiles.

  



End file.
